Sorry for being a bit
quiet recently, but I had a really busy week.
As regular readers will
know, I've been working away from home for the last few weeks. I've
been contracted by a large company with a number of factories spread
around the country to carry out an inventory of their electrical
spares. Currently each factory has a separate non-computerised stock
control system, and the plan is to have one company wide computerised
system. So basically what I do is go to each factory, identify each
electrical spare, input it into a large spreadsheet and cross
reference it with suppliers catalogue numbers. It's a bit boring, but
it's well paid and I would have been unemployed otherwise.
After a number of weeks
at various factories I had a lot of data to input, so it was planned
that I would spend a week at home typing away at my computer, or that
was the plan....
I had started typing
last weekend in the hope that I would be finished before the end of
the week, the weather would have improved, and I might get out on the
bike. So far, so good.
I live in a semi
detached house and had discussed with my neighbour a plan to have the
building roughcast as the original finish had started to look a bit
tatty, (it was built in 1961, so has lasted well). As I was working
away from home I had left all the decisions to her, and the last
message I got was that the work would be started 'in a few weeks'. On
Monday I look out of the window and see the roughcasters' van and one
of the guys carrying a large board with colour samples on it going
into my neighbours' house. I went to see them and we decided upon a
colour. Then the roughcaster said he'd be starting in the morning! My
neighbour had forgotten all about the agreed starting date and hadn't
told me. This meant that I had to prepare the outside of my house in
a bit of a hurry! I had a canopy to remove from above my front door,
numerous plant holders to take down, and demolish a dilapidated brick built porch
from the back. Luckily, my brother Stuart came round and helped with
the porch, but it took me a full 3 days to get all the work done,
working just ahead of the roughcasters. This meant that I only
managed a few hours each night inputting data and the job was
slipping further and further behind.
The roughcasters were
finished by Friday and I have to say that I was very impressed by the
work they had done. I just wish that I'd had more time to prepare
things.
While this was going
on, I was also waiting for a couple of phone calls. First was from a
potential employer that had phoned on Monday saying that they were
just sorting out details of a job I'd been interviewed for, and that
they would definitely phone me by Friday (inferring that I'd got the
job). Friday came and went with no phone call, not really surprising
as they same company were definitely going to phone me about three
weeks ago, but didn't.
Remember my recent Friday bike, the Yamaha SZR660 where I'd said 'this could change
soon....'? A couple of days before I'd written this, my friend Terry
had sent me an advert for a non running SZR locally. I contacted the
seller saying I was interested and gave him both my phone numbers,
and said I'd be able to come and see it any time as I was at home
that week. He got back to me a couple of days later saying the bike
was still for sale and to arrange a time. The problem sounded like
the carb needed cleaned out, but as the bike was cheap I was willing
to buy it unseen as I'm familiar with the engine. It had a bit of
cosmetic damage, but nothing I couldn't fix so it sounded like a good
project – basically a 'more sporty Skorpion Sport'.
However, despite a
number of e-mails, the seller still hasn't got back to me, and I even
got Terry to e-mail him posing as another potential buyer, but he
hasn't received a reply either. The bike is still listed as 'for sale'
on a website, so why isn't the seller contacting two potential
buyers? Some people...
By Saturday I was
feeling physically and mentally worn out, but I still had all the
inputting to do. I got up early and worked all day trying to clear
the backlog. I'd arranged to meet some people that night, but by the
time I was due to go out I was feeling really run down and unwell. I
went out, but wished I hadn't, and went home as soon as I could.
However, I couldn't sleep as I was suffering from a terrible headache
and felt even worse when I got up in the morning.
I was still too unwell
to go to Yorkhill Easter Egg Run. This is a charity event where
motorcyclists go for a ride on a route through Glasgow (many in fancy
dress) to raise money for the Royal Hospital for Sick
Children , known locally as 'Yorkhill' (area of the city it's in.)
As you can
see from their website, there was a good turnout, so lots of money
would have been raised, people had a good day out, and it's always
good PR for motorcyclists.
This is from last year's Run, there are
some other videos on YouTube taken from a fixed point, and it takes
about 13 or 14 minutes for all the bikes to pass, so there must have
been hundreds of bikes there.
You can still donate by phone via the Website. There's also a Facebook page, from where I stole these pictures:
Anyone
fancy doing this next year?
***UPDATE*****
Five minutes after I post this, someone uploads video of this year's event.
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